Comments on: Sea Kayaking Leadership and Risk Assessment CLAP!

By: Kasey Marsteller

Kasey Marsteller — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:15:10 +0000

Very good blog! Do you have any suggestions for aspiring writers? I’m planning to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you advise starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many options out there that I’m completely confused .. Any recommendations? Cheers!

By: Norberto Mettle

Norberto Mettle — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 06:18:58 +0000

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By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:20:26 +0000

I googled around a fair bit also and couldn’t find it. When I used to climb, I never heard it used either.

It’s still a great acronym.

By: kwikle

kwikle — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:35:53 +0000

I was taking Leon Somme at his word that alpine climbers used it. Ha! I couldn’t find it either. I googled around a fair bit. I think it might be a British thing, not sure.

Keith

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 03:26:28 +0000

Nice post. I hadn’t seen the acronym before, and really like it. The way I learned “Position” is that you always put yourself between the folks that you’re guiding and the most probably place that they’re going to run into trouble. That way, they don’t have a chance to encounter that location.

A simple way to say it is position yourself between your participants and the hazard. Is this how they taught it to you?

Great post! And I’m going to use this acronym from now on. I haven’t been able to hunt down any references to the acronym in alpine climbing. Do you have any?

Thanks.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:16:04 +0000

I can see where you could use the risk assessment bull’s-eye in another way. In the planning stages or even for a day paddle, hand out laminated sheets with grease pencils/dry-erase markers. The sheets get set up like individual questionnaires, or rather individual assessments.
“What scenario puts YOU in the red/ no-go zone?” 1-3’ waves, 3-5’, 5-8’, 8-12’, … Offshore winds up to 10kn, 15kn, 20kn… currents, swells, distance off-shore, total distance covered, surf launch/landings, yadda, yadda, yadda…
This does quite a few of things. It forces the individuals to take an active roll in the planning, it makes them consider their own limits realistically (without the machismo), it gives them a voice about any reservations, and it gives the leader feedback about their group and the perception of the trip. I suppose it also gives the leader the boundaries of the trip given the accompaniment…that’s the crux, right?
Yeah, it could be seen as pompous, but if it’s done humbly, and/or handed in anonymously, the sheets could be very valuable tools.

By: kwikle

kwikle — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:07:36 +0000

John:

The link for the PDF should be fixed now.

I had to run a mysql update to find and replace all references of keithwikle.com to gokayaknow.com.

This should be all better!

And I also feel pretty manly about it.

By: j o h n

j o h n — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:42:47 +0000

This post is really great! Both parts, ‘Communication’ and ‘risk assessment’. I’m looking forward to putting this into action. I can’t wait to get out into howling conditions again, so I might introduce a motion to change “Avoidance” to “Awareness”.

I would have loved to have a radio on the Nov 15th trip. Given the conditions, I’m not sure if I could have used it on the water, unless rafted up (interesting situation). And radios would have been great for relaying information once people started getting to the beach. (I realize that I need to get and learn how to use a marine radio. Specifically, I want to see if I can use it without taking it out of my PFD picket, just by hitting the talk button. This seems like it would be the most useful setup, on the water. )

It is a great plan to use easily recognized hand signals. On that trip, I had to flag down Joe to quickly discuss exit strategy, and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to give him any sort of recognizable signal to wait for me to catch up. We were separated by a hundred yards or so, but one of the times we could see each other through the wave-action, he could see that I was trying to get his attention. We got close enough to yell out an exit plan over the howl of the wind, which turned out to be a really good thing! (We landed on the same beach!)

The bullseye tool seems like a great way to build group consensus, especially when agreeing to take calculated risks. I’m guessing that the “risks to be plotted” relate to the days itinerary and weather conditions (I can’t get the link to work…) It seems like you are also suggesting discussing beforehand a plan-of-action for possible on-the-water mishaps. This, too, sounds great, and might serve as a way to learn a little more about everybody who is paddling.